In the new program, immovable items will be more accurately accounted for.
According to The Verge, Waymo has decided to voluntarily recall its robotaxis after one of them was involved in a collision with a telephone pole in an alley when it was on its way to pick up a passenger with the passenger. The vehicle was empty, and there were no witnesses or bystanders who were hurt.
At the time of the accident that occurred on May 21st, the Waymo car was traveling through an alley that was lined with telephone poles that were positioned at street level rather than on a curb. A yellow line indicated the direction in which the vehicle should be driven. According to Waymo, the vehicle was traveling at eight miles per hour when it collided with one of the poles and incurred some damage.
According to Jericka Mitchell, a passenger who was waiting for the car, “It never made it to pick us up,” she told 12News. As far as we know, Mitchell was aware of the accident but did not witness it.
Following the implementation of software updates across the entirety of its fleet of 672 autonomous vehicles, the business notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the need to recall the vehicles. The purpose of this update is to correct an error that resulted in the pole being given a low damage score and failed to take into consideration the alleyway’s sharp edge.
Simply said, this is Waymo’s second recall. The initial incident took place earlier this year when two of its autonomous vehicles collided with the same pickup truck that was being pulled while it was being towed. Waymo discovered that its algorithms was unable to accurately forecast the motions of the car in that particular instance because there was a “persistent orientation mismatch” between the vehicle being towed and the vehicle that was being towed.
An investigation has also been opened into Waymo for more than 24 occurrences, which include collisions and infractions of traffic laws. A more serious event occurred in the previous year involving Rival Cruise, which is owned by General Motors. In this incident, one of Rival Cruise’s robotaxis mistakenly carried a person who had been hit by another vehicle a few dozen feet along a street in San Francisco. The state of California subsequently revoked its authorization to conduct business within the state, and Cruise eventually ceased its robotaxi activities.